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FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Border bill moves to vote in the House

After a conservative revolt yesterday forced the GOP leadership’s border funding bill to be pulled from the floor, a new bill is ready to pass.

The new legislation — described to GOP lawmakers in a closed-door meeting in the Capitol — uses new language from Texas Rep. John Carter and Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt to change a 2008 trafficking law that made it harder to deport children from countries other than Canada and Mexico.

The bill is more costly than than the legislation that had to be yanked from the floor Thursday. The latest version sends $35 million to the governors to pay for their National Guards, sending the price tag to $694 million — a far cry from the nearly $4 billion President Barack Obama requested. It is fully offset by spending cuts, GOP sources said.

According to Politico, Marsha Blackburn has included language that will prevent, as much as any mere law can, Obama from granting amnesty unilaterally. This provision will get a separate vote from the funding bill. Michele Bachmann and Steve King are both on board with the new bill.

With the Senate already on recess and unable to produce a bill itself, this represents something of a victory of style over substance. The next round will take place if the Senate passes a different bill and a conference committee is required.